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Why is it every time I catch up on this show BLQ turns up dressed like Biggie Smalls. Come on.

Like I always say re: Anna's WSB career, it's the same principle here. Brennan is a damn arms dealer and international kingpin (yes, he was the co-head of Pikeman, the show tries to pretend he wasn't but as far as I recall he truly was and merely covered his tracks to pretend he was undercover!) who has killed countless people due to not only his ill-gotten gains and before that his long career in intelligence with the WSB. Yet for some reason he is consistently sweaty and sprung for upstate soccer mom yung grandma Carly, who is the epitome of that Amy Poehler Mean Girls character: "You girls keep me young!" Brennan is embarrassing to me period and a waste of time, but they are clearly only keeping him til they find something better for Carly after the umpteenth attempt at Jarly with Steve and Laura flopped last spring. This is the first and only time I've considered just recasting Jax (not with this dude!) and bringing him on as a partner for Lois or something. To have a real power player and give Jax a defined story role again for the first time in oh, idk, 25 years? If we're being 100 he's barely had one since except for Jax's years with Carly, and she lost a good thing in him. We've had more absent congressfolks tbqh. (sup Kyrsten Sinema)

More of Beyond the Gates with Daphnee (the link works dw):

I'm very fond of those years too and I love dogs, but any time the Foster/Annabelle saga really got going I would flip to see what was going on on CBS for a few mins lol. This is what I've been saying. If not for Sidwell's arrival and impending replacement role (and apparent lack of involvement in the recent hospital murders, to my surprise though I shouldn't be - GH once again went with the most obvious choice) we'd be back to a few more years of Cyrus while Jason glowers at him from across the Metro Court and vows vengeance for Sam, and continues to do nothing. Just as no one did anything when Cyrus bombed Charlie's, killed several people and put Lulu in a coma. Sidwell will fill that role completely soon enough.

I said it before and I'll say it again: Willow should fuck himbo Chase just because she can as revenge on the Qs. Do it Barbara Ryan crazy-style. Then Chase can leave, or die. idc! All the little children Frank dotes on get into the opening credits for no reason too, so of course they'll add Baldo. I find all of them (and him) deeply obnoxious to see there, and I remember when this show had literal dogs in the opening credits. Animals! At this point I expect 2 year old Amelia or another infant to pop up in the next round. It feels very weird for FV to insist on these additions, it's like a weird fundie family reality show.

Eh, he's okay. Lucas' scenes with Carly, his sister, were not my problem. Lucas' assorted hambone meltdowns at the hospital or at Nina's penthouse(?) were my problem. I've always had a certain amount of indulgence for Van Hansis and beyond that he's a bit much. If he reins it in and they give him some story beyond 'just more dumb shit with Brad' we'll see. I love R.J., who was one of my favorite characters of all time on OLTL. He never got the airtime or story he should've. I just don't think it is healthy or appropriate for GH to continue to headline OLTL stars or characters.

Unfortunately they've foisted the deathless cyborg upon him, because the people of color must all be bundled together. I'd rather have seen Isaiah with Lucas (though I'm still not convinced they shouldn't recast him again). I would argue Gio has been far less crammed in recent months. He was a veritable dayplayer for awhile, and Mazza's natural charm ended up shining through more as a result IMO. That made him somewhat less of a spare part to me, though he certainly still resembles one and his upcoming story is likely to be a real mess. But I don't dislike the actor. I blame the material and previously lack thereof. I am just marking time til they insist on bringing on one of the Gannon brothers from OLTL for Isaiah, which will wear me out. My take is the same as the one I had last week: Better late than never. This story had been drained of all character nuance in the fall up until that point.

Lord, let me not make the joke I was about to make. I just feel awful as a GH fan and an OLTL one for all the recent losses. And yes, do watch BTG! It debuts February 24th and I'll be there. Don't worry, Ron Carlivati is only a breakdown writer! (I am very, very curious to see how long he lasts working under both creator/HW Michele Val Jean and the allegedly fearsome co-HW Bob Guza, who is said to suffer no fools in his staff.)

Llanview's own Daphnee Duplaix (Rachel Gannon #4) is starring on CBS' Beyond the Gates, featured this morning on Sunday Morning. So happy for her and for daytime.

Oh please God no lol. I do fully expect them to kill or at least shoot Drew soon, and possibly turn him into a full psycho or attempted rapist before he goes if they do off him. This show has no appetite for more organic heavies or schemers outside of goofy, embarrassing villains like Cyrus or Sidwell. I wouldn't mind Drew continuing as a baddie, but the shame of it as I've said so often is he didn't have to become a full villain if he'd stayed on the much more nuanced trajectory Patrick Mulcahey had him on in the spring - he was a fun, roguish cad with Nina and also getting closer to Willow, but the tone and focus of the story was different, more about Nina getting back in touch with herself/gaining Drew's respect professionally and personally, as well as him being a boor in need of some humbling as the Willow thing got going. He was still at core not a bad man, just an arrogant one. Now it's a much simpler tale that's just about Drew the pervy Svengali taking over Willow's life, and I can rock with that to a point but I do think they're just going to ice him. Which could be a good story, but he could do more. Anyway, Cynthia Watros' reactions to Drew are consistently hilarious. Everyone in that circle is playing it to the hilt (except Mo).

I agree, she's pretty good. I couldn't care less about her suddenly being mischievous. The little girl previously in the role had maybe one gear and Emma being a clone of her mother would be very boring to me. Making Robin's daughter of all people a hellraiser is far more interesting. The problem is pairing her with Gio, and I like Gio. But nobody is here for an all-new Emma and rando Gio together just because she happens to be available and notably not Trina. I don't need her to be WSB. I wouldn't hate Joss doing that actually (or even going into the PCPD and scandalizing her mother), but I am fine with Joss in less story. I think Eden has a couple speeds and a couple things she's good at but she can't carry frontburner story. They've tried many times.

Katelyn MacMullen is doing very good work these last few weeks. All these late in the day deconstructions of Willow's character they've done recently in various scenes are very much trying to rebuild things after their rushed and half-assed execution of this storyline, but at the same time the motives and explanations do make sense. I just wish the dialogue was as smart as it was last spring. It does remind me a lot of what happened to Barbara Ryan on ATWT when Doug Marland came aboard - she went from put-upon heroine to bad news virtually overnight. Willow isn't quite there yet but she is being portrayed as the clueless naif in the clutches of the heavy, and when push comes to shove she often veers towards breaking bad. The setup is Right There for them to do this, same as Barbara did - Willow finds out Drew slept with her mother and she gave everything up for nothing, then turns full vindictive bitch on everyone. It can work. And should be done. She should do what Barbara did, too - seduce Chase again because she can, to fuck with the Qs. It would also be an easy way to get boring Chase off the show. Jane and Laura did very good work together today as well. I would force Carly and Tracy into business together somehow for that reason. We could watch them clash 2-3 times a week. As for the custody imbroglio - no, Tracy should sensibly have no rights to Willow's children. Do I care? Not in the slightest, it's something the Qs would do anyway BITD to flex on their enemies and it's good, messy soap for them all to stab each other in the backs and Jane and Steve were great together. Tracy could easily go in on the cult angle with Willow's fucked-up background (and brainwashing in Drew's) to try to paint her as unfit and mock up some sort of defense with the Qs' legion of high-priced lawyers for her swerve with the kids. This stuff can be written. What I don't quite get is why Tracy and co. in the Qs all suddenly hate Drew so much too, but I guess it's the Michael thing. Tracy and Michael did get closer in the 2010s, along with Michael and Ned at times. Should Nina make Gio her boytoy? I'm just asking questions! Watros would be very funny with him, but Ava once again falling for a barely legal twunk and two-timing Ric with him would be equally so. (ofc if I had my way Gio would be casually bi and sleep with both one of the women and an unsuspecting and mildly mortified Lucas.) Cody with Nina would also work. I would absolutely undo this whole Dante/BLQ child thing as a sad mix-up - they don't need an adult kid to age them up. As others have said: How is Alexis going to fight Scout's sole remaining biological parent, a Congressman in good standing, for custody? How, Alexis? Her only recourse would be to go full Cassadine and play dirty, and then it could be done but they don't do that with her (and they should). Anyway this is all just clearly setup for Drew getting got and probably a whodunit in February so that's merely an academic question.

Not at all. It's hard for anyone who grew up with this show. I have many, many issues with Frank Valentini's stewardship of GH, but I'll never forget what he did for many vets over the years to pay respect to them, starting with the wonderful service he did in John Ingle's final days which was reported in great detail by his grateful family. I never forgot either the seemingly spontaneous applause for Rachel Ames when she appeared at the nurses' station during the anniversary in 2013. I don't believe she knew about it; she looked very surprised. And the tributes for Jackie, for Sonya Eddy, for John Reilly, etc. were wonderful and kind. GH has many glaring flaws but they kept Monica very involved in recent years before Leslie's recent injury and illness, with the Qs and at the hospital. They endeavored to keep her involved any way they could, via voice or by brief appearances in the last couple years. I am grateful to FV and to GH for that. I knew this was probably coming but it's still very sad. Leslie was vital to revitalizing this show and making it a generational force, and to modernizing soaps in general with both GH and Love is a Many Splendored Thing and her work there. I held out hope we could see her one last time. I will watch a '90s episode in her honor tonight, probably the breast cancer story she was so good in. Monica was too real for the room sometimes, and that was all Leslie.

I'm getting tired of reporting these. Leslie Charleson is gone.

It will absolutely be Natalia and her kids.

I will maintain that Cameron was a fine choice for reworking Drew. The problem is they failed to fully do it several times. When he first came into the role he was a heroic character and a deliberate offset from Jason, and was still very close to Monica and the Qs as Billy Miller's version had moved towards. It would've taken nothing for Cameron's Drew to go to work for the WSB or wherever as an ex-military man who was also proud of his family ties. Unfortunately the Korte, CVE/O'Connor, etc. vision for Drew extended no further than being a placeholder for Jason in Carly's life, which is where their inexplicable romance was born. (And today Carly acts like Drew is A.J., even though for a couple years and as recently as last January she still treated him like a god made flesh.) Then when Patrick Mulcahey came aboard, he re-conceived Drew as a kind of Ross Marler type from GL, a rakish, schmoozing handsome politico who was cocky and debonair. Cameron Mathison is very good at this type of character IMO, as he came onto daytime playing the early version of Ryan Lavery on AMC this way. he and Cynthia Watros offset each other well in their love/hate relationship onscreen last spring. Even the Willow thing worked early on AFAIC because it was messy, soapy, scandalous and controversial (something GH has trained many of its daily viewers to be allergic to), the actors all had chemistry and (IMO, anyway) it was probable the long story was going to be Drew ending up back with Nina - the woman who challenged him vs. worshipping him - after being humbled when caught between both women in what would've likely been (and could still be) a major political scandal. That long story is not what's happened since, though. The writers changed again, they rushed and muddled the Drew/Willow affair and made him come off much creepier, which is a fine line to walk in a story like this anyway, and it's clear the current team considers Drew to be a disposable antagonist. But the truth is I don't think any actor could've sold the schizoid writing for Drew over the last few years. I think Cameron may be limited but he's done well and done the job this past year, and I will think it's a bit of a waste even now if he goes because he makes a good scheming heel onscreen. But he could've been more last year, and it's too bad GH has such limited vision. There's mostly good people, cartoon villains and not much else in between. As for Sidwell, this nonsense with Lucy is exactly what I said it would be: Another round of Cyrus or Peter August with the names and faces changed. I have no interest in watching her get rooked by another obvious 2-D baddie who will probably get a full family soon to make us sympathize with him because BTS they don't want to let Carlo Rota go. Zzzz.

It's clearly a bizarre quick change, since they had set up Michael being vengeful over Willow and Drew a la Alan vs. Monica, which would've been great. Then in classic modern GH fashion, they dropped it all for him just moping around lovelorn and now boom, burnt to a crisp. I wonder just how bad off Chad is IRL. They need to recast but I don't think Frank ever will out of loyalty to Chad's long years in the role.

Yeah, some sprinklers would not get Emma expelled.

How exactly did Ava lose all her money? I've been watching and I still don't know. This show is so insanely conflict-averse that they couldn't even stick to Michael returning to his vengeful Q roots for longer than 3 minutes. Now his whole persona is being regretful and moping over his wife. He should've gone full Alan/A.J. on Willow and started working on dropping the roof on Drew and Willow; that's the kind of material Chad is actually still good at. But no, as soon as he completed the Aurora bid he's back to Sad Wife Guy. Ridiculous.

I have always wanted Emma to come back as bad news. She'd be the person everyone least suspects. She probably won't be nearly as bad as I'd like her to be, but this is fine by me so far. There are enough bland 'good' people populating this show, so I have no issue with mixing it up. Emma is also the product of two largely perfect public paragons (Patrick came a long way, anyway) and the grandchild of two local heroes. That's enough to chafe at. Exactly. It's not like we were dealing with Amber Tamblyn's Emily or Jonathan's Lucky (or even, frankly, Bechtel's Spencer who while constantly obnoxious was a clear blueprint for certain elements of the adult character). Emma as a child was not a fleshed-out character.

I knew they were doing Martin and Tracy with that scene last week. Ugh. They just slot these cheap recurring players in with anyone (a la Robert and Diane) and call it romance. First Lucy, now Tracy. And don't get me started on more of Arr, Me Jewels! with poor Lucy.

Oh, right. The paste eater. Never mind.

I am absolutely struggling to figure out how or why Lucas gives a shit about Willow and Drew, and I have watched this show for over 30 fucking years. Yes, I know Lucas is Carly's brother but let's not pretend he and Michael have a deep relationship. (Outside of that one time Fluke tried to get what R&B hitmakers Next would call "Too Close" to Michael and Ryan Carnes' Lucas back in the Carlivati era.)

The girl playing Emma seems solid, if slightly old for the part. I guess she'd work as a contemporary of Nicholas Chavez and probably William Lipton. It is hilarious the lengths they will go to to avoid ever pairing Trina with anyone white again, though. Gio gets a few more unexpectedly well-liked scenes with her and boom! New white girl hits the scene! I like Gio and I have nothing against NuEmma so far (Brooklyn Silzer was adorable but could not handle dramatic acting as an adult, a recast was inevitable) but I don't care about them together. You're not gonna put over a very new guy like Gio and an all-new recast that easily. It just feels like something to cement him (and keep him away from Trina), and I'd rather see both parties tested around with others as the new girl seems promising. I also said years ago Emma should be a secret vixen/antiheroine - no one would expect that of her - so I hope this edge isn't all Robin Hood good deeds. Alexa has really brought the spunk back to Lulu, without the hardness that JMB had to go with it. No, I don't love her relentless quest to retrieve her mutant hellspawn but the scenes with her breaking into Wyndemere, etc. really had spark and good chemistry with DZ.

I've said all this before, but I was all in on Drew/Nina under Mulcahey and the Willow affair. I think his intention was to invert his own story from Guiding Light, where schmoozing politician Ross Marler is in a triangle with mother and daughter and ends up with the daughter, Blake. He remolded Drew into Ross and went to town, and I think Cameron plays that schmoozing, cocky sort of cad with a heart well. Since PM's exit they have made Drew into more of an overt heel/dick, and I think Cameron actually plays that well too. He is performing the role as scripted, I don't fault him for that. I suspect Drew will get gunned down or otherwise murdered very shortly, but I would be happy with seeing him continue because the show needs more Quartermaine operators like that. The problem is he is now wildly unpopular with the audience, including on here. Some of those reasons are certainly valid enough given all the shit he's pulled, I get it. But for other members of the online audience GH has honestly just trained them to not expect soap opera behavior from people and not tolerate it. Characters like Drew Q were a dime a dozen back in the day, but GH has so few actual scoundrels, schemers or gladhanding politicians today that aren't either all white or all black in their nature. And a lot of people just seem to recoil at them now. So I think he's dunzo soon. It's too bad, because I'd probably rather have seen Who Shot Drew vs. Who Killed Drew. Both are good stories I expect GH to squander. But had he been handled with more care like earlier in the year he (and the tawdry affair with Willow, which has been totally rushed through and mishandled, to say nothing of a Nina endgame) could've run for a long time. JMO.